Great Power Fighting Falcon

At 14:00 in the afternoon, the maintenance team entered the outfield one and a half hours early.

At the apron, five Warhawks 037, 201, 207, 209, and 212 were arranged neatly. Cong Dawei was in command. The leader and mechanic of each maintenance team directed his troops to start preparations before dispatching in strict accordance with the procedures.

After refueling and supplying oxygen, loading ammunition, and comprehensively inspecting the fighter plane, the weapon status, especially the fuze status, was repeatedly confirmed. The atmosphere of war was very strong.

The maintenance brothers were sleepy and tired but in high spirits.

Only in the morning did the live-fire training for the entire brigade of eighteen fighter planes take place, and they even had time to eat at noon. The pilots landed and left the fighter planes to eat and rest, but the maintenance staff could not. After various inspections and maintenance after flight, fighters that continue to fly must undergo more comprehensive and detailed inspections and re-flight inspections, especially the No. 037 fighter!

Therefore, as Li Zhan's maintenance team leader, Air Force Captain Miao Yu and his six maintenance officers and soldiers were tired and happy. They are happy because their chances of receiving awards for meritorious service are much higher than those of other crew members.

At 14:30, the raiding team gathered in the flight briefing room. Li Zhan and the four pilots once again confirmed the attack route and attack tactics, focusing on confirming the penetration route and several backup plans. Relatively speaking, the difficulty of penetrating from Beikuchang Station to the Gobi Dry Lake is less than penetrating westward along the unnamed canyon of the Beikuchang Mountains. The turbulent airflow in the mountainous area has a great impact on the posture of the fighter aircraft.

Therefore, Li Zhan emphasized, "After taking off, we have to pass through Beikucheng District from north to south and then turn to the southwest. This time we are carrying live ammunition, so we will not fly over the city, but fly around the suburbs at low altitude. This is in line with the operation The only big difference in the plan.”

The four pilots nodded in unison.

Flying over urban areas at low altitude with live ammunition is usually not allowed. If there is a malfunction and it falls, if there is a problem with the ammunition and it falls, it will cause great casualties to the people. Therefore, during live-fire training, urban areas should be avoided if possible.

The reason why the Beiku area is a natural training ground is because it is vast and sparsely populated, and there are not as many factors to worry about and avoid as in coastal areas.

However, a raid from Beikuchang Station to East Kuchang Station must pass through Beikuchang City, and the urban area is a good cover.

"The terrain in the first half of the route to break into Dongku is relatively flat, and it is almost impossible to use the terrain for cover. Therefore, the flight altitude should be as low as possible, controlled at 100 meters, and the speed can be slowed down. After entering the middle section, we enter The Dongku Mountains are mostly mountains and hills with an altitude of hundreds of meters. The trees are very dense, which is a natural cover. It is also a key area for Red Army radar detection. When you get here, you must attack the target as quickly as possible. The faster, the better. If successful, climb back immediately."

Li Zhan briefly explained the route of the raid on Dongkuchang Station, and then said, "Therefore, the following low-altitude penetration and live ammunition shooting training must strictly follow the requirements of the combat plan. The most important thing is to follow my pace. .understand?"

"Clear!" The four of them replied in unison.

At 15:10, with the sun still in the middle of the sky, the assault team arrived at the apron in a commuter bus. The maintenance team had completed all the work and was lining up on standby.

At this time, after the busy morning, the outfield returned to silence. On the parallel road, only bird patrol vehicles were circling around the outfield to eliminate the threat of birds. Then there is the tower that is still busy. Xue Xiangdong finished his work at the second tower and sat in the main tower, always paying attention to various data that will affect flight safety.

Li Zhan once again emphasized several key points of the plan and disbanded the team to prepare separately. Miao Yu reported to him, and then accompanied him to check the checklist item by item to confirm that it was operating normally. The same goes for the other four crews.

At 15:20 minutes, five people boarded the plane fully armed, and five ground power supply vehicles drove the motors to drive the five fighters almost simultaneously. The pilot made a pre-takeoff inspection and gave a thumbs up to the crew chief after confirming that everything was correct. The crew removed the boarding ladder and the tower gave the order to slide the fighter plane out of the apron.

At 15:27, five J-7E fighters lined up in a diamond shape at one end of the runway. Li Zhan was alone in front, and the other four were in a double formation at the back. They were on different axes to avoid the engine being sucked into the front plane. exhaust.

At 15:30, the tower issued an order: "Dongsanguai team can take off."

"Received Dong San Gui, start taxiing." Li Zhan saw that the engine tachometer pointer exceeded the fixed value for takeoff and then released the brakes. The No. 037 fighter jet roared forward and ran forward.

He did not use afterburner to take off, but after gliding a long distance step by step, he lifted the wheels off the ground after reaching the full load lift-off standard. Only a few meters above the ground, he decisively retracted the landing gear, making the fighter's posture more stable.

Behind them, two two-plane formations took off immediately, both gliding long distances before leaving the ground. The runway at Beiku Station is three thousand meters long. If it can be fully utilized, there is no need to waste aviation fuel on taking off with afterburner.

Continuing to turn right to complete the formation, the assault team composed of five fighters continued to turn right until it adjusted its course and pointed directly at Beikucheng District. The high-speed flight approached the city and then turned south, flying at a low altitude close to the edge of the city. There is a national highway underground that extends northward along the edge of the city. The landmarks are very obvious, and pilots can determine their specific location through visual inspection.

The advantage of the home field lies here. The pilots of the 101st Regiment are very familiar with the area of ​​​​nearly a thousand kilometers in the Beiku area. This is due to the continuous increase in training volume of the entire regiment since 2010, and also due to the fact that pilots pay more attention to the use of terrain and landforms due to the influence of low-altitude penetration and strike subjects.

The roar of fighter planes attracted the attention of some people in the city. People often see military aircraft flying in the sky, but this is the first time they have seen a fighter plane flying at such a low altitude and with "missiles" hanging under its wings.

At a relative altitude of four to five hundred meters, from a distance, there is not much difference between flying close to the ground, but people don't know that such a standard can only be regarded as an ordinary level in the Mad Demon Brigade.

A high starting point, high standards, and high combat effectiveness are Li Zhan's "three highs" requirements for the Mad Demon Brigade. The Kuangmo Brigade is not only the test team of the "228" project, but also the exploratory team of the Air Force Aviation Force, and it is also the vanguard of the Air Force Aviation Force's combat training reform.

Pei Xiaoshuai flew along the airflow in waves for a while, and subconsciously looked at the leading aircraft No. 037, which was flying at a lower altitude in the direction of the nose. The radio channel was very quiet, and the captain did not reprimand him, so he secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

"Attention, everyone, we are about to enter the Gobi. Follow me and continue to descend to a height of 100." Li Zhan glanced left and right, and the surrounding environment was replaced by the desolate, vast and flat Gobi Desert.

Team members answered in call sign order.

Li Zhan slowly pressed the lever and stared at the ground surface and altimeter ahead. When the pointer was close to the psychological position, he quickly leveled off, and the fighter plane continued to fly stably at a relative altitude of 80 meters. The four fighter planes behind immediately descended, but they were at an altitude of about 100 meters, maintaining a minimum distance of three kilometers from Li Zhan.

This is a normal height difference. In order to prevent the four rookies behind him from being unable to stop the car and crashing into them, Li Zhan had to fly lower than them.

The Gobi Desert is not absolutely flat, it also has curvature, and the terrain is also undulating, but most of it is gentle, and it looks like a plain. Precisely this will give the pilot an illusion. When you think it is flat ground, there is actually a height difference of tens of meters, and the consequence will be a collision with the ground. The flight altitude of a mere 100 meters only takes half a second for a fighter jet traveling at more than 700 kilometers per hour, and the pilot has basically no time to react.

Therefore, it is necessary to pay close attention to changes in terrain and altimeter changes.

"Dongsanguai, the radar can't see you. Report the situation." Xue Xiangdong, the tower commander, sent a question.

The radar deployed at the weather station cannot detect the 037 Squadron flying at ultra-low altitude hundreds of kilometers away. Even if it can detect it, it may be difficult to distinguish the five fighters of the 037 Squadron from the ground background reflection waves, let alone lock them. .

The air warning radar at the Beikuchang Station Meteorological Observatory cannot be seen, and the radar at the East Kuchang Station is even less visible. This is critical information.

Li Zhan replied, "Dong Sanguai reported that everything is normal and the training is being carried out according to the established training plan. It's over!"

Although it had been many times, Xue Xiangdong's heart would twitch every time he saw the fighter signal disappear from the radar screen, and he had to reply to confirm from the pilot before he could rest assured. But how can it be truly assured? He practiced several times last time and knew the danger of low-altitude penetration. Moreover, Li Zhan had very high requirements for the Mad Demon Brigade, and he was already approaching the limit of ultra-low-altitude flight.

The minimum takeoff and landing speed of the J-7E is theoretically 260 kilometers per hour. In fact, no one has flown it so far, except the test pilot and Li Zhan. At that time, he encountered a fuel emergency warning in the Second Division and made an emergency landing at a speed of less than 260 per hour.

Under normal circumstances, the J-7E needs to land at a speed of more than 300 kilometers per hour, otherwise it will stall.

The Su-27 is different from the J-11B. It has a conventional aerodynamic layout and a large wing area, so it has no problem at all at speeds of about 200 kilometers. When the Second Division was shooting ground targets, the advantages of the Sukhoi and Shen Hoi fighter jets were very obvious. They could aim and attack very calmly. However, the pilots flying Lockheed Martin's J-7 series fighters were in a hurry every time they hit the ground targets. ——You must maintain a high airspeed or you will stall. Maintaining a high airspeed means that the aiming time will be very short.

This is the reason why Li Zhan flew the No. 037 fighter plane and won the first place in the division's ground target live ammunition shooting - he relied on his own skills to make up for the equipment gap and achieved a perfect score.

As far as low-altitude penetration is concerned, the SU-27, SU-30 and J-11 series are the most suitable for this task among the Chinese aviation forces. Even the low-altitude and low-speed performance of the JH-7 "Flying Leopard" fighter-bomber is better than Not as good as these heavy fighter jets. Whether it is bomb load, range or defense penetration capabilities, they are all top-notch. This is why HNA urgently needs SU-30MKK or J-11BS and more advanced J-16 to replace the Leopard.

Therefore, it highlights the superb low-altitude burst capability of the Kuangma brigade using the J-7E.